Systems and methods of managing appointments in a health care system

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems and methods of managing appointments in a health care system.

This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Application Ser. No. 61/370,355 filed Aug. 3, 2010 for PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to health care systems and, more particularly, to systems and methods of managing appointments in a health care system, to compensate health care providers.

2. Description of Related Art

The increasing cost of health insurance induces insurers to seek new ways to contain increases in healthcare costs. A primary method to achieve this is through various methods of cost shifting from the insurer to patients. By having patients be responsible for an increasing portion of their healthcare spending, the insurers believe that patients will become smarter consumers of healthcare and help to reduce the overall costs. As a result, the proportion of payments from the patient to the physician, as opposed to from the insurer to the physician, increases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In order to manage appointments, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first-format, the message including a first first-format field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second-format, depending a content of the first first-format field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field indicating an identity of a patient, a second second-format field indicating a date on which a health service was performed for the patient, and a third second-format field indicating the health service, and third circuitry that sends a message in a third-format, the message including a first third-format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second third-format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the third-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second third-format field in the message received in the third-format, constructing a message in a fourth-format, the message in the fourth format including a first fourth-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf; receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second-format; and responsive to the message received in the second-format, constructing a message in the first-format, such that a content of the first first-format field depends on whether the second entity has effected payment. The method comprises the steps of electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the third-format; electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second-format; and conditionally electronically charging a payment card account an amount corresponding to a content of the message received in the second format, depending on whether a patient identity indicated by a first second-format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a patient identity indicated by a first third-format field of the message received in the third format, and whether a date indicated by a second second-format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to a date indicated by a second third-format field of the message received in the third format.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a first-format, the message including a first first-format field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a second-format, depending a content of the first first-format field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field indicating an identity of a patient, a second second-format field indicating a date on which a health service was performed for the patient, and a third second-format field indicating the health service, and third circuitry that sends a message in a third-format, the message including a first third-format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second third-format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the third-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second third-format field in the message received in the third-format, constructing a message in a fourth-format, the message in the fourth format including a first fourth-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf; receiving a message, from the first entity, in the second-format; and responsive to the message received in the second-format, constructing a message in the first-format, such that a content of the first first-format field depends on whether the second entity has effected payment. The system comprises circuitry that receives a message, from the first entity, in the third-format; circuitry that receives a message, from the first entity, in the second-format; and circuitry that charges a payment card account an amount corresponding to a content of the message received in the second format, depending on whether a patient identity indicated by a first second-format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a patient identity indicated by a first third-format field of the message received in the third format, and whether a date indicated by a second second-format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to a date indicated by a second third-format field of the message received in the third format.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a HIPAA 835 format, the message including a first HIPAA 835 format field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a HIPAA 837 format, depending a content of the first HIPAA 835 format field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the HIPAA 837 format including a first HIPAA 837 format field indicating an identity of a patient, a second HIPAA 837 format field indicating a date on which a health service was performed for the patient, and a third HIPAA 837 format field indicating the health service, third circuitry that sends a message in a HIPAA 270 format, the message including a first HIPAA 270 format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second HIPAA 270 format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 270 format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second HIPAA 270 format field in the message received in the HIPAA 270 format, constructing a message in a HIPAA 271 format, the message in the fourth format including a first fourth-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf; receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 837 format; and responsive to the message received in the HIPAA 837 format, constructing a message in the HIPAA 835 format, such that a content of the first HIPAA 835 format field depends on whether the second entity has effected payment. The method comprises the steps of electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 270 format; electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 837 format; and conditionally effecting payment corresponding to a content of the message received in the HIPAA 837 format, depending on whether a patient identity indicated by a first HIPAA 837 format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a patient identity indicated by a first HIPAA 270 format field of the message received in the third format, and whether a date indicated by a second HIPAA 837 format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a date indicated by a second HIPAA 270 format field of the message received in the third format.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates first circuitry that receives a message in a HIPAA 835 format, the message including a first HIPAA 835 format field, and second circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in a HIPAA 837 format, depending a content of the first HIPAA 835 format field of a message received by the first circuitry, the message in the HIPAA 837 format including a first HIPAA 837 format field indicating an identity of a patient, a second HIPAA 837 format field indicating a date on which a health service was performed for the patient, and a third HIPAA 837 format field indicating the health service, third circuitry that sends a message in a HIPAA 270 format, the message including a first HIPAA 270 format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second HIPAA 270 format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 270 format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second HIPAA 270 format field in the message received in the HIPAA 270 format, constructing a message in a HIPAA 271 format, the message in the fourth format including a first fourth-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf; receiving a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 837 format; and responsive to the message received in the HIPAA 837 format, constructing a message in the HIPAA 835 format, such that a content of the first HIPAA 835 format field depends on whether the second entity has effected payment. The system comprises circuitry that receives a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 270 format; circuitry that receives a message, from the first entity, in the HIPAA 837 format; and circuitry that conditionally effects payment corresponding to a content of the message received in the HIPAA 837 format, depending on whether a patient identity indicated by a first HIPAA 837 format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a patient identity indicated by a first HIPAA 270 format field of the message received in the third format, and whether a date indicated by a second HIPAA 837 format field of the message received in the second format corresponds to the a date indicated by a second HIPAA 270 format field of the message received in the third format.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a method for operating with a system including a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates circuitry that sends a message in a first-format, the message including a first first-format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second first-format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also includes a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, constructing a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf. The method comprises the steps of: electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, electronically constructing a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field, a content of the first second-format field depending on whether a payment card account will be chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed; and electronically sending the message, constructed in the previous step, to the first entity.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates circuitry that sends a message in a first-format, the message including a first first-format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second first-format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, constructing a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf. The system comprises circuitry that receives a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; circuitry, responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, that constructs a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field, a content of the first second-format field depending on whether a payment card account will be chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed; and circuitry sends the message, constructed by the recited in the previous paragraph, to the first entity.

According to yet another aspect of the present invention, there is a system for operating with a first entity, the first entity providing health services, wherein the first entity activates circuitry that sends a message in a first-format, the message including a first first-format field indicating an identity of a patient, and a second first-format field indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient. The system also operates with a second entity, the second entity providing payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers, the second entity performing the steps of receiving a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, constructing a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf. The system comprises means for electronically receiving a message, from the first entity, in the first-format; means, responsive to the proposed date indicated by the second first-format field in the message received in the first-format, for constructing a message in a second-format, the message in the second-format including a first second-format field, a content of the first second-format field depending on whether a payment card account will be chargeable at a time after the medical service is performed; and means, responsive to the constructing means, for sending a message to the first entity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

References are made to the following text taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a system 1 in accordance with a first system exemplifying an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a sequence of messages in system 1, involving a person who has purchased medical insurance.

FIG. 3 is an image displayed on an output screen.

FIG. 4 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 9.

FIG. 11 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 10.

FIG. 12 is an image displayed on the output screen at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 11.

FIG. 13 shows another sequence of messages in system 1, involving the person shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments for health care in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments for health care in the first exemplary system, at a time after to that shown in FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a data structure storing predicted appointments for health care in the first exemplary system, at a time after to that shown in FIG. 17.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart describing a process shown in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart describing a process shown in FIG. 13.

FIGS. 23A and 23B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIGS. 25A and 25B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIGS. 27A and 27B constitute a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing a message in more detail.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing circuitry in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing circuitry in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 31 is a diagram showing a data structure in the first exemplary system.

FIG. 32 shows a sequence of messages in system 1, involving a person relying on medical insurance to pay for a particular medical service.

FIG. 33 shows a sequence of messages in system 1, involving the person not relying on medical insurance to pay for a certain medical service.

FIG. 34 is a diagram describing an aspect of a program at a certain time.

FIG. 35 is a diagram describing the aspect of the program at a subsequent time.

FIG. 36 is a diagram describing the aspect of the program at a subsequent time.

FIG. 37 is a flowchart describing a process shown in FIG. 13.

FIG. 38 is a diagram describing the aspect of the program at a subsequent time.

FIG. 39 is a diagram describing the aspect of the program at a subsequent time.

FIGS. 40A and 40B constitute a flow chart.

FIG. 41 is a diagram showing correspondence between a message and elements in a database.

FIG. 42 is a diagram showing correspondence between the message and other elements in the database.

FIG. 43 is a diagram showing correspondence between the message and elements in the database.

The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and which constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, explain the principles of the invention, and additional advantages thereof. Certain drawings are not necessarily to scale, and certain features may be shown larger than relative actual size to facilitate a more clear description of those features. Throughout the drawings, corresponding elements are labeled with corresponding reference numbers.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

First Exemplary System

FIG. 1 shows system 1 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

Person 10 has a subscriber relationship with insurance company 21, meaning that person 10 has a contract with insurance company 21, the contract providing that person 10 pay insurance company 21 before medical cost accrue. Insurance company 21 has an obligation to pay for medical costs as they accrue, provided certain conditions are satisfied.

Person 10 has a dependent relationship with insurance company 25, meaning that person 10's spouse has a contract with insurance company 25 in which person 10 is covered as a dependent, the contract providing that person 10's spouse pay insurance company 25 before medical cost accrue. Insurance company 25 has an obligation to pay for medical costs as they accrue, provided certain conditions are satisfied.

Person 10 has a card holder relationship with credit card company 28, meaning that credit card company 28 may pay a cost when the cost accrues and person 10 is then obligated to compensate credit card company and, under certain conditions, pay interest.

Credit card company 28 is a card-issuing bank, an organization that issues credit cards to consumers. Credit card company 28 bills consumers for repayment and bears the risk that an issued card is used fraudulently. Credit card company 28 is a member of an association of card-issuing banks that participate in a network such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, etc. The association sets transaction terms for merchants and card-issuing banks.

Responsive to an appointment request from person 10, staff in medical office 301 invokes a computer program to send a message to payment system 400 to determine patient eligibility in payment system 400. The message includes a HIPAA 270 transaction, including information regarding the appointment, such as the appointment date, the patient name and ID and the account holder name and ID and expected services to be performed.

Responsive to receiving the HIPAA 270 transaction, payment system 400 generates a HIPAA 271 transaction to respond to the HIPAA 270 inquiry, thereby informing medical office 301 regarding whether person 10 is set up in system 400 with a valid payment method (i.e. are they eligible based on the information system 400 has at present). If person 10 is already set up in payment system 400 and the payment card account of person 10 is valid, then the payment system 400 will automatically set up an appointment record for person 10 based on the information in the HIPAA 270. If person 10 is not already set up in payment system 400 or the payment card account of person 10 is not valid, then payment system 400 will set up an appointment record and sends an email to person 10, enabling person 10 to either register or update their payment card prior to the appointment with medical office 301.

In summary system 400 emulates an insurance company to use HIPAA 270/271 transactions to communicate appointment scheduling information between the payment system 400 and the medical office practice management system without requiring any changes to the legacy code. As such the personnel at medical office 301 do not need to set up appointments directly within payment system 400.

Subsequently, Person 10 visits medical office 301 (“Good Life Medical Clinic”) and receives a medical service, such as an office visit with a blood test or antibiotic injection. Person 10 sees doctor 375. At appointment checkout, person 10 sees office administrator 380. Medical office 301 thus generates a charge.

In order to collect payment from payment system 400, medical office 301 sets up payment system 400 as a standard ‘payer’ in the medical office practice management system (PMS) such that payment system 400 emulates an insurance company. For person 10, medical office 301 sets up payment system 400 as a tertiary payer, or the payer of last resort.

For person 10, medical office 301 sends an ANSI ASC X12N 837 Health Care claims 837) transaction (HIPAA 837 transaction) to person 10's primary insurer, insurance company 21.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction from medical office 301, insurance company 21 sends a X12N 835 Health Care Claims Payment Advice transaction (HIPAA 835 transaction) that explains an adjudication ruling based on a contract between medical office 301 and insurance company 21, and a contract between person 10 and insurance company 21 (person 10's eligibility and benefits). The HIPAA 835 transaction provides medical office 301 remittance advice corresponding to the received 837 transaction, along with a detailed breakdown of payment and adjustments to the billed amount. The HIPAA 835 transaction includes amount, payee, payer, and payment method. The HIPAA 835 transaction also includes Explanation of Benefits information related to adjudicated claims and services.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 835 transaction from insurance company 21, medical office 301 sends a HIPAA 837 transaction that includes coordination of benefits information to the next payer assigned to person 10, insurance company 25.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction from medical office 301, insurance company 25 sends a HIPAA 835 transaction that explains an adjudication ruling based on a contract between medical office 301 and insurance company 25, and a contract between person 10 and insurance company 25 (person 10's eligibility and benefits) and the resulting adjudication by the primary insurance company 21.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 835 transaction from insurance company 25, medical office 301 sends a HIPAA 837 transaction that includes coordination of benefits information to the next payer assigned to person 10, payment system 400, with all the previous payer's information in the coordination of benefits segments of the transaction.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction, payment system 400 checks the information in message 1075 (FIG. 13) against unpaid appointments within payment system 400. If a match is found in that the HIPAA 837 transaction states that payment system 400 is the payer associated with the transaction, that the provider who rendered the services is the provider for the appointment, and the subscriber and patient in the transaction are the account holder and patient in payment system 400, then the HIPAA 837 transaction and the appointment are deemed to have been matched.

In response to receiving the HIPAA 837 transaction, payment system 400 then uses the patient outstanding balance information within the HIPAA 837 transaction to either:

1) Charge person 10's credit card for the outstanding balance, or

2) Send a detailed bill to the person 10 via email to explain the outstanding balance and allow person 10 to click on a ‘Pay Now’ button to have the outstanding amount charged to their existing credit card within payment system 400.

If payment system 400 is successful in collecting the outstanding charges, the services within the HIPAA 837 transaction are deemed to be paid. If the charges are declined by the credit card issuing bank then the services are deemed to be denied as if the patient is ineligible. If the person 10 does not press the ‘Pay Now’ button then the services are deemed to be denied as the charges could not be authorized for collection. In response to the services being denied, the medical office may bill person 10 for an amount corresponding to the denied service as defined in the 835 response.

On a periodic basis, payment system 400 processes all the HIPAA 837 transactions for a specific medical office in a settlement process. During settlement payment system 400 determines if the transactions have been matched and payment status determined, it will also determine whether enough time has passed for the payments collected to have been deposited into the payment collection vendors merchant account. If these conditions are met, payment collection 400 aggregates all the payments for medical office 301 since the last settlement cycle and constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction to send to the medical office 301 PMS. The HIPAA 835 transaction is then submitted to medical office 301 either directly or via a clearing house, and either a check or an EFT payment is provided to the medical office as payment for the services included in the HIPAA 835.

If the medical office PMS system is able to process electronic 835 transactions automatically, the medical office PMS system will accept the HIPAA 835 transaction from payment system 400 and auto-post it into the patient's account. Otherwise, the medical office staff manually posts the transactions just as for the 835 transactions from other payers.

In other words, medical office 301 activates circuitry that receives a message in HIPAA 835 format, the message including element CLP05, which is one type of field. Medical office 301 also activates circuitry that makes a determination of whether to send a message in HIPAA 837 format, depending a content of element CLP05. The HIPAA 837 format message includes an element indicating an identity of a patient, an element indicating a date on which a health service was performed for the patient, and an element indicating the health service.

Medical office 301 activates circuitry that sends a message in HIPAA 270 format, the message including an element indicating an identity of a patient, and another element (element DTP) indicating a proposed date for performing a health service for the patient.

Insurance company 21 provides payment services by paying from an account that is common to a plurality of subscribers. Insurance company 21 receives an HIPAA 270 message form medical office 301. Responsive to the proposed date indicated by the element DTP, insurance company 21 constructs a HIPAA 271 format message including element EB01 indicating whether a patient is eligible to have a payment made on the patient's behalf.

Insurance company 21 receives a HIPAA 837 format message form medical office 301. Responsive to the HIPAA 837 message, Insurance company 21 constructs a message in HIPAA 835 format, such that a content of an element of the HIPAA 835 message depends on whether the insurance company 21 has effected payment.

Payment system 400 electronically receives a message, from medical office 301, in the HIPAA 270 format. Payment system 400 electronically receives a message, from medical office 301, in the HIPAA 837 format. Payment system 400 conditionally electronically charges a payment card account an amount corresponding to a content of the HIPAA 837 message, depending on whether a patient identity indicated by the HIPAA 837 message corresponds to the a patient identity indicated by the HIPAA 270, and whether a date indicated by HIPAA 837 message received in the second format corresponds to a date indicated by the HIPAA 270 message.

Payment system 400 electronically constructs a message in the HIPAA 835 format, such that a content of the HIPAA 835 format message depends on whether payment system 400 electronically charges the payment card account.

In summary, payment system 400 is a patient liability collection system having an interface to a conventional HIPAA compliant medical office, or clearinghouse, acting as a submitter. The interface processes HIPAA transaction messages, to emulate the behavior of an insurance company, but in the pursuit of managing and collecting patient liability for medical services that is not covered by insurance.

Payment system 400 emulates the responses of an insurer such that the practice management system processes the response accordingly. The specific response codes required may differ between practice management systems, but the principle of emulating a response from an insurance company that invokes the correct processing the practice management system to show the patient as fully paid up or with an outstanding balance is universal.

Thus, there is no change to the legacy software instructions in the submitter; the submitter need only register payment system 400 as a payer. In the case of a patient not relying on insurance to pay the medical office, the registration is that of a primary payer. A person may have insurance but may not be relying on it to pay a certain service with a certain medical office.

In the case of a patient relying on insurance, the registration is that of a secondary payer, so that payment system 400 eventually receives a claim corresponding to patient responsibility. The patient responsibility could be for a co-payment, deductible, co-insurance or a non-covered service, for example.

More Detailed Description of the First Exemplary System

Payment system 400 and insurance company 21 are non-affiliated, meaning that they are not affiliates with respect to each other. In this patent application, concerns are affiliates of each other when one concern controls or has the power to control the other, or a third party or parties controls or has the power to control both. Power to control is described in Section 121 of the U.S. regulations of the Small Business Administration.

Payment system 400 and insurance company 25 are non-affiliated.

Payment system 400 and medical office 301 are non-affiliated.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing sequences of messages and materials exchanged between people, data, and electronic processors in system 1. In FIG. 2, and in each of the other sequence diagrams in this patent application, each of the rectangles on a dashed line is a process invoked in response to a received message. The process could be facilitated, enabled, or carried out, by a computer executing computer instructions to effect a function of the process.

Person 10 registers, or opens an account, with credit card company 28. (message 1010) This act of opening an account may be performed by person 10 by filling out a form provided online by credit card company 28, mailing a paper form to credit card company 28, or speaking on the telephone with a person in credit card company 28 who collects relevant information. An account record now created in credit card company 28 for person 10 includes a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, a security code (CVV) and a card holder name. Credit card company 28 returns a credit card number, expiry date and security code to person 10 (message 1012). Credit card company 28 may also return a physical, plastic, credit card.

Subsequently, person 10 registers, or opens an account, with payment system 400. (message 1015) This act of opening an account may be performed by person 10 or office administrator 380 on their behalf by filling out a form provided online by payment system 400, mailing a paper form to payment system 400, or speaking on the telephone with a person in payment system 400 or office administrator 380 who collects relevant information. An account record now created in payment system 400 for person 10 includes the credit card account number received from credit card company 28, a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, and a card holder name. CVV is collected but not stored. Payment system 400 returns the account information (equivalent to a subscriber or member id provided by an insurance company) to person 10 (message 1020) or the office administrator 380.

Payment system 400 stores the credit card information in compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v 1.2 or later, based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptography technology.

Person 10 purchases an insurance contract from insurance company 21, by supplying information and transferring funds to insurance company 21. (message 1025). Insurance company 21 informs person 10 of an insurance policy information (such as the group number and member id) for person 10. (message 1030).

Person 10's spouse purchases an insurance contract from insurance company 25, by supplying information and transferring funds to insurance company 25. (message 1035). Insurance company 25 informs person 10's spouse of an insurance policy information (such as the group number and member id) for person 10. (message 1040).

Person 10 informs medical office 301 of the policy information received from insurance company 21, the policy information received from insurance company 25, and the account information received from payment system 400. (message 1045), or the office administrator 380 may look up this information in payment system 400.

In response to receiving message 1045, medical office 301 invokes process 305. Process 305 includes setting up a payer list for person 10 (“John Smith”) in database 378. FIG. 3 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing an empty payer list for person 10. FIGS. 4 and 5 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 3. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add insurance company 21 (“Acme Insurance”) as a primary payer for person 10.

FIG. 6 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance” in the payer list for person 10.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 6. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add insurance company 25 (“Beta Insurance”) company as a secondary payer for person 10.

FIG. 9 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance” and “Beta Insurance” in the payer list for person 10.

FIGS. 10 and 11 are images displayed on output screen 370 at a time subsequent to that depicted in FIG. 9. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to add payment system 400 (“Z Payer”) company as a tertiary payer for person 10.

FIG. 12 is an image displayed on output screen 370, showing “Acme Insurance”, “Beta Insurance” and “Z Payer” in the payer list for person 10. FIG. 31 shows a memory data structure, including payer list 382, corresponding to the image in FIG. 12.

Appointment Setup

FIG. 13 shows a process wherein person 10 requests an appointment with medical office 301. (appointment scheduling 3050).

Responsive to the request from person 10, staff in medical office 301 invokes computer program 317 (FIG. 30) to send a message 3053 to determine patient eligibility in insurance company 21. Message 3053 includes a HIPAA 270 transaction, including information regarding the appointment, such as the appointment date, the patient name and ID and subscriber name and ID and expected services to be performed.

FIG. 14 shows message 3053 in more detail.

Responsive to receiving message 3053, insurance company 21 generates message 3060, which is a HIPAA 271 transaction to respond to the HIPAA 270 inquiry, thereby informing medical office 301 regarding eligibility for services.

FIG. 15 shows message 3060 in more detail.

Responsive to the appointment request from person 10, staff in medical office 301 invokes computer program 317 (FIG. 30) to send a message 3075 to determine patient eligibility in payment system 400. Message 3075 includes a HIPAA 270 transaction, including information regarding the appointment, such as the appointment date, the patient name and ID and the account holder name and ID and expected services to be performed.

FIG. 18 shows message 3075 in more detail. FIG. 18 is relatively abstract, compared to actual text of message 3075 shown in FIG. 34 below.

Responsive to receiving message 3075, payment system 400 generates message 3090, which is a HIPAA 271 transaction to respond to the HIPAA 270 inquiry, thereby informing medical office 301 regarding whether person 10 is set up in system 400 with a valid payment method (i.e. are they eligible based on the information system 400 has at present).

If person 10 is already set up in payment system 400 and the payment card account of person 10 is valid, then the payment system 400 will automatically set up an appointment record for person 10 based on the information in the HIPAA 270.

FIG. 16 shows appointment list 480 in payment system 400 before payment system 400 receives the message 3075.

FIG. 17 shows appointment list 480 in payment system 400 after payment system 400 receives the message 3075, in the case where person 10 is already set up in payment system 400 and the payment card account of person 10 is valid.

If person 10 is not already set up in payment system 400 or the payment card account of person 10 is not valid, then payment system 400 sets up the appointment and sends an email to person 10, enabling person 10 to either register or update their payment card prior to the appointment with medical office 301.

FIG. 19 shows message 3090 in more detail.

In summary system 400 emulates an insurance company to use HIPAA 270/271 transactions to communicate appointment scheduling information between the payment system 400 and the medical office practice management system without requiring any changes to the legacy code. As such the personnel at medical office 301 do not need to set up appointments directly within payment system 400.

Appointment

After person 10 visits medical office 301 for an appointment and receives a medical service. An appointment 1050 to the medical office 301 produces charges. As shown in FIG. 30, person 380 actuates mouse 372 and keyboard 374 to enter the charges, thereby invoking computer process 310, which sends a HIPAA 837 transaction (message 1055) to insurance company 21. Subsequently, insurance company 21 adjudicates (determines) the payment obligation of insurance company 21 and patient 10. Subsequently, insurance company 21 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060) containing an adjudicated result generated by insurance company 21. Subsequently, insurance company 21 sends the HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060) to medical office 301. Insurance company 21 sends payment, corresponding to insurance company 21 payment obligation based on the adjudicated result generated by insurance company 21, to medical office 301.

Responsive to receiving message 1060, medical office 301 invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to insurance company 25 (message 1065) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060).

Subsequently, insurance company 25 adjudicates (determines) the payment obligation of insurance company 25. Subsequently, insurance company 25 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070) containing an adjudicated result generated by insurance company 25. Subsequently, insurance company 25 sends the HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070) to medical office 301. Insurance company 25 sends payment, corresponding to insurance company 25 payment obligation based on the adjudicated result generated by insurance company 25, to medical office 301.

Responsive to receiving message 1070, medical office 301 invokes computer process 315, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400 (message 1075) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070).

FIG. 20 shows appointment list 480 at the time that payment system 400 receives the message 1075. In contrast to FIG. 17, FIG. 20 shows appointments added for other people since creation of the appointment record for person 10 (John Smith). FIG. 20 also shows reflects appointment records that have been removed since the creation of the appointment record for John Smith.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing process 410. CPU 462 selects the first appointment record in appointment list 480 (step 5). CPU 462 determines whether the current appointment record matches the HIPAA 837 transaction (step 10). If the appointment record does match the HIPAA 837 transaction, CPU 462 conditionally charges the payment card account (step 15).

If the current appointment record does not match the HIPAA 837 transaction, CPU 462 determines whether there are appointment records remaining in appointment list 480. (step 20). If there are appointment records remaining in appointment list 480, CPU 462 selects the next appointment record (step 25) and resumes processing at step 10.

If step 20 determines there are no appointment records remaining in appointment list 480, CPU 462 constructs a HIPAA 835 transaction to indicate that payment is denied.

Step 10 includes checking whether the appointment record currently under consideration is unpaid, determining whether the HIPAA 837 transaction states that payment system 400 is the payer associated with the transaction, determining whether the provider who rendered the services is the provider for the appointment, and determining whether the subscriber and patient in the 837 transaction are the account holder and patient in payment system 400.

Step 10 also may include searching for services in the HIPAA 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record. Two services correspond if they have the same service code. Alternatively, two services correspond if they are sufficiently similar. For example, in system 400 the service having service code 99213 may correspond to the service having service code 99214.

Step 15 includes determining if payment was collected, then the service is deemed to be paid. If system 400 finds a service in the 837 transaction having a corresponding service in the appointment record, and payment was not collected from the person 12, in that the charges were declined by person 12's credit card issuing bank, then the service is deemed to be denied as if person 12 was not eligible at the time of service and the patient responsibly is set to the full outstanding patient responsibility indicated in the received HIPAA 837.

If the service is deemed to be paid, then the transaction fee related to using the payment system 400 is set as an adjustment to the collected funds.

Step 15 includes using the patient outstanding balance information within the HIPAA 837 transaction to either:

1) Charge person 10's credit card for the outstanding balance, or

2) Send a detailed bill to the person 10 via email to explain the outstanding balance and allow person 10 to click on a ‘Pay Now’ button to have the outstanding amount charged to their existing credit card within payment system 400.

If payment system 400 is successful in collecting the outstanding charges, the services within the HIPAA 837 transaction are deemed to be paid. If the charges are declined by the credit card issuing bank then the services are deemed to be denied as if the patient is ineligible. If the person 10 does not press the ‘Pay Now’ button then the services are deemed to be denied as the charges could not be authorized for collection. In response to the services being denied, the medical office may bill person 10 directly for full outstanding patient responsibility corresponding to the denied service as defined in the 835 response.

Responsive to receiving message 1085, payment system 400 constructs and sends a HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1090) based on the message received from credit card company 28 (message 1085).

In summary, payment system 400 is a patient collection system having an interface to a conventional HIPAA compliant medical office, or clearinghouse, acting as a submitter. The interface processes HIPAA transaction messages, to emulate the behavior of an insurance company, but in the pursuit of managing and collecting patient liability for medical services that is not covered by insurance.

Payment system 400 emulates the responses of an insurer such that the practice management system processes the response accordingly. The specific response codes required may differ between practice management systems, but the principle of emulating a response from an insurance company that invokes the correct processing the practice management system to show the patient as fully paid up or with an outstanding balance is universal.

Thus, there is no change to the legacy software instructions in the submitter; the submitter need only register payment system 400 as a payer. In the case of a patient not relying on insurance to pay the medical office, the registration is that of a primary payer. A person may have insurance but may not be relying on it to pay a certain service with a certain medical office.

In the case of a patient relying on insurance, the registration is that of a secondary payer, so that payment system 400 eventually receives a claim corresponding to patient responsibility. The patient responsibility could be for a co-payment, deductible, co-insurance or a non-covered service, for example.

More Detailed Description of the First Exemplary System

Central processing unity (CPU) 362 (FIG. 30) executes program 314 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 315. Program 314 includes a programming construct that waits for and dispatches messages received from computer networks 30. When the programming construct receives a HIPAA message, the programming construct calls the relevant program (“dispatches the message”), as shown in steps 10, 15, and 20 of FIG. 22.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing process 315. CPU 362 determines whether a message, received via networks 30, is a HIPAA 835 transaction (step 5). If the received message is a HIPAA 835 transaction, CPU 362 determines whether ((the CLP05 element value is not present or (FIG. 24) is equal to zero) and (that there are no patient responsibility (PR) adjustments in the service adjustment segment (CAS)))

(step 10). If the patient responsibility element is not zero, meaning that costs have not been fully paid, CPU 362 determines whether there are any payers remaining in payer list 382. (Step 15). If there are payers remaining in payer list 382, CPU 352 constructs a HIPAA 837 transaction with the information in the 835 response as coordination of benefits information within the HIPAA 837 transaction. CPU 362 sends the HIPAA 837 transaction to the next payer, via network interface hardware 368 and networks 30. (Step 20).

The paid amount and the billed amount typically do not match. In general the paid amount is lower than the billed amount and then a series of adjustments are noted that balance it out.

In summary, system 1 employs existing standard insurance based electronic transactions (HIPAA transactions) to manage the collection and payment of the patient portion of medical bills. For example, system 1 generates a standard 837 EDI transaction to allow a practice management system in a medical office to send a request for payment of patient collections, or a request to collect outstanding patient collections. Payment system 400 then generates a standard HIPAA 835 transaction to report whether the collection was made and how much was collected. Since system 1 employs standard transactions the payment system and the medical office's practice management system are able to interact without any specialized IT changes.

FIG. 23 shows message 1055 (FIG. 13) in more detail. Message 1055 includes an element CLM02 (“Billed Amount for Claim”) having the value $217.53. The insurer adjusts this amount to the allowed amount which is the negotiated rate between the insurer and the medical office. The billed amount is the same regardless of who the medical office sends the claim to and is sometimes referred to as the retail amount.

FIG. 24 shows message 1060 in more detail. Message 1060 includes an element CLP04 (“Claim Payment Amount”) having the value $151.43, which is the amount that insurance company 21 (“Acme Insurance”) is paying on the claim. Message 1060 also include information about how the insurance company has adjusted the claim from the billed amount to the paid amount, including element CAS03 (“Contractual Obligations”) ($46.10) and element CAS03 (“Patient Responsibility”) ($20.00).

Responsive to receiving message 1060, CPU 362 executes program 314, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to insurance company 25 (message 1065) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1060).

FIG. 25 shows message 1065 in more detail. Message 1065 retains that CLM02 element “Billed Amount for Claim” having the value $217.53, but details out the allowed amount that can be paid out on this claim (LOOP 2320 AMT COB Allowed Amt=$171.43), what has already been paid out (LOOP ID 2430 SVD02 Service Line Paid Amt=$151.43) and the outstanding patient responsibility amount (LOOP ID 2430 CAS03 Patient Responsibility=$20.00). Insurance company 25 uses this information together with their contract with patient 10 to determine if they should pay out any of the outstanding patient responsibility.

FIG. 26 shows message 1070 in more detail. Message 1070 includes an element CLP04 having the value $10.00, which is the amount that insurance company 25 (“Beta Insurance”) is paying on the claim.

Responsive to receiving message 1070, CPU 362 executes program 314, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400 (message 1075) based on the received HIPAA 835 transaction (message 1070).

FIGS. 27A and 27B show message 1075 in more detail. Message 1075 includes an element “Billed Charges for Claim” having the value $217.53, and includes all the payments, adjustments and patient responsibilities determined by insurance company 21 and 25.

FIG. 28 shows message 1090 in more detail. Message 1090 includes an element CLP04 having the value $9.00, which is the amount that payment system 400 (“Z Payment Company”) collected from person 10's credit card, via credit card company 28 minus the fee charged by Z Payment Company for collection. In other words, person 10's credit card was charged $10.00, Z Payment Company retained a $1.00 fee for collecting this charge and so the amount paid to Good Life Medical Clinic is $9.00.

Responsive to receiving message 1090, CPU 362 executes program 314, to determine that the claim has been paid in full.

FIG. 29 shows another aspect of payment system 400. A computer system includes central processing unit (CPU) 462, random access memory 464, disk memory 466 for storing programs and data, and network interface hardware 468.

CPU 462 executes programs stored in memory 464, to process received messages, and to generate and send messages from payment system 400.

Database 478 is stored on magnetic disk 466, and portions of database 478 are read into memory 464 as needed.

CPU 462 executes program 404 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 405. CPU 462 executes program 409 (a plurality of computer instructions) to effect process 410.

FIG. 30 shows another aspect of medical office 301. An administrator station includes an IBM compatible PC having CPU 362, random access memory 364, disk memory 366 for storing programs and data, and network interface hardware 368. The administrator station also includes a user interface having a display 370 a keyboard input device 374 and a mouse input device 372.

Processor 362 executes programs 376 and program 314 stored in memory 364, to generate and send messages from medical office 301.

Database 378 is stored on magnetic disk 366, and portions of database 378 are read into memory 364 as needed.

FIG. 31 shows database 378 in more detail. Database 378 includes patient data structure 380, which may be conceptualized as a list of patients. Each entry in patient list 380 includes a reference to a payer list, such as payer list 382 for person 10 (John Smith), payer list 386 for Roger Ramirez, or payer list 388 for John Adams.

In the data structures shown in the Figures, lines represent a reference, such as a pointer, between one element and another. These references are not necessarily direct memory address pointers. Instead, more generally, each reference is a data entity, stored in association with one (referencing) element, that enables a processor to find a related (referenced) element. To physically address the referenced element, the processor may subject the reference to various translations or mappings. In the case of the reference to payer list 382, the reference may be simply a list of the names, or identification codes, of the 3 payers.

Each entry in a payer list, such as payer list 382, includes connectivity information allowing communication through networks 30. The connectivity information may be a payer id assigned by a clearinghouse, a U.S. federal tax ID, or some other type of national ID.

From an EDI perspective of system 400, one can either directly connect to all the participating providers, or one can rely on a clearing house such as an Emdeon clearinghouse. In the later case, system 400 receives 837s from the clearinghouse that are directed to the payer ID of system 400 (which is given to the providers about so they can set up payment system 400 in their respective PMSs), and system 400 sends 835s to the clearinghouse, which uses a tax id and/or the national provider id to route the transaction to the right provider. The clearinghouse therefore works as a kind of post office that gets the right transactions to the right recipients in the correct format.

Instead of operating via a clearinghouse, each entry in payer list 382 may include a Universal Resource Locator (URL), such as http://www.metlife.com:234, corresponding to a payer. This could also be FTP or other EDI communications networks such as AS/2

In summary, system 1 includes insurance company 25, which is a type of entity that provides insurance services. These services involve a contract whereby, for specified consideration, insurance company 25 undertakes to compensate others for costs relating to a particular subject as a result of the occurrence of designated events, such as prescribed medical procedures.

Medical office 301 controls execution of computer instruction 311 (FIG. 15), which acts to send message 1065 (FIG. 13) to insurance company 25, message 1065 including data (FIGS. 25A and 25B, element SV1) encoding a medical service for a person.

Medical office 301 controls execution of computer instruction 312 (FIG. 15), which acts to receive message 1070 in reply to message 1065.

A CPU 462 (FIG. 29) executes computer instructions 409 to effect a process for operating with medical office 301, the process comprises the step of receiving a message, such as message 1075, from computer instruction 311.

Responsive to the receiving step, CPU 462 and computer instructions 409 send messages, such as message 1090, to computer instruction 312. Message 1090 encodes a monetary amount (FIG. 28, field CLP05) collectable from the person in response to a service performed by medical office 301.

Second Exemplary Scenario

FIG. 32 is a diagram showing sequences of messages and materials exchanged between people, data, and electronic processors in system 1 in accordance with a second exemplary scenario. Person 12 is self-paying, meaning that person 12 is not relying on a health insurance policy to pay for the medical service cited in the example. Person 12 could be self-paying because, for example, person 12 has no medical insurance. Alternately, person 12 could be self paying because, for example, medical office 301 is not contracted with the insurance carrier of person 12, such that the medical office 301 is out of network.

Person 12 registers, or opens an account, with credit card company 28. (message 1010). An account record now created in credit card company 28 for person 12 includes a billing mailing address, a card expiration date, and a card holder name. Credit card company 28 returns a credit card number, expiry date, and possibly a security code to person 12 (message 1012). Credit card company 28 may also return a physical, plastic, credit card.

Person 12 informs medical office 301 of the account number received from credit card company 28. (message 2045).

Subsequently, medical office 301 registers, or opens an account for person 12, in payment system 400 (message 2015). Message 2015 includes the credit card number of person 12 received from credit card company 28. An account record now created in payment system 400 for person 12 includes the credit card number received from credit card company 28 (stored in a PCI complaint manner), and a mailing address. Payment system 400 returns an account number to medical office 301 (message 2020).

Appointment Setup

FIG. 33 shows a process wherein person 12 requests an appointment with medical office 301. (appointment scheduling 3050).

Responsive to the appointment request from person 12, staff in medical office 301 invokes computer program 317 (FIG. 30) to send a message 3075 to determine patient eligibility in payment system 400. Message 3075 includes a HIPAA 270 transaction, including information regarding the appointment, such as the appointment date, the patient name and ID and the account holder name and ID and expected services to be performed.

Responsive to receiving message 3075, payment system 400 generates message 3090, which is a HIPAA 271 transaction to respond to the HIPAA 270 inquiry, thereby informing medical office 301 regarding whether person 12 is set up in system 400 with a valid payment method (i.e. are they eligible based on the information system 400 has at present).

If person 12 is already set up in payment system 400 and the payment card account of person 12 is valid, then the payment system 400 will automatically set up an appointment record for person 12 based on the information in the HIPAA 270, as described above in connection with person 10.

Appointment

After person 12 visits medical office 301 for an appointment 1050 and receives a medical service, medical office 301 eventually invokes computer process 310, which constructs and sends a HIPAA 837 transaction to payment system 400 (message 1075). Payment system 400 conditionally processes message 1075 depending, inter alia, on the contents of appointment list 480, as described above in connection with person 10.

More Detailed Description of Appointment Setup and Subsequent Process 405

1) When a patient requests an appointment the staff of medical office 301 looks up the patient in the practice management system of medical office 301.

2) If the patient exists in their practice management and already has payment system 400 assigned as one of their payers then the staff sets up an appointment in the practice management system as normal.

3) If the patient exists in the practice management system but does not have payment system 400 assigned as a payer then they assign payment system 400 as their payer of last resort and enter the patient's email address as the member id for the subscriber responsible for the patient. If the subscriber and the patient are different entities then both the subscriber and the patient are set up in this way.

4) If the patient does not exist in their practice management system then they need to be set up as usual with the appropriate subscriber/patient relationships if necessary. The member id for the subscriber will be their email address, no member id is assigned to the patient at this stage.

5) In batch or real time mode, medical office 301 generates a HIPAA 270 transaction and sent the HIPAA 270 transaction to payment system 400, via a clearinghouse, to request Eligibility and Benefit information related to the appointment that was set up. The HIPAA 270 transaction should include any scheduled services on the medical office's price list to be included in the appointment.

6) When process 405 of payment system 400 receives the HIPAA 270 transaction, process 405 processes the HIPAA 270 transaction as follows:

a. If the subscriber ID is not an email address, process 405 looks up the subscriber ID in database 478. If found then an appointment record is created for the patient in appointment list 480. The appointment record includes the service date found in the DTP element in either the 2000C or 2000D loop of the HIPAA 270 transaction. The time of the appointment is set to noon, or some other time based on default values established within payment system 400. Services in the EQ elements are set up as scheduled services, if no services are provided then the 99213 service (or equivalent on the medical office's price list) is scheduled. If the appointment scheduled services can be pre-authorized at this point they are pre-authorized.

b. If the subscriber ID is an email address, then the appointment is treated as an unregistered patient appointment and a registration email is sent to the subscriber's email address to request that they register for the service prior to the appointment. If the subscriber does not register prior to the appointment the medical office staff will be required to enter the payment information upon check in.

7) Process 405 will construct a 271 response as follows:

a. If the subscriber existed, had a valid payment method and a pre-authorization for the scheduled services was successful then a response of Active Coverage is sent back in the EB01 element

b. If the subscriber existed, had a valid payment method but the pre-authorization was pended due to the service date then a response of Active-Pending Investigation is sent back in the EB01 element indicating that the office staff should check the pre-authorization nearer the appointment date on the Payment system 400 site

c. If the subscriber existed, but did not have a valid payment method for pre-authorization then a response of Inactive-Pending Eligibility Update is sent back in the EB01 element

d. If the subscriber does not exist, but a valid email address was provided to send registration information out then a response of Inactive-Pending Investigation is sent back in the EB01 element

8) Process 405 sends HIPAA 271 transaction back to medical office 301 with the appropriate trace numbers for the medical office to process the response and determine the appropriate course of action. The medical office will be able to confirm that the appointment is set up within the payment system by logging into the site for Payment System 400.

FIG. 34 is a diagram describing an aspect of program 404. Program 404 parses the HIPAA 270 transaction in message 3075 (FIG. 13) by recognizing certain tags and delimiters. Program 404 increments text pointer 407 as parsing progresses. At the time depicted in FIG. 34, program 404 is parsing the text of the date of birth element in the “DMG” segment.

At the time depicted in FIG. 35, program 404 has recognized the character that delimits segments (“˜”).

At the time depicted in FIG. 36, program 404 is in the process of recognizing tags a tag identifying a segment. At the time depicted in FIG. 36, the token candidate is “D”.

FIG. 37 is a flow chart describing another aspect of program 404.

Program 404 compares the current token candidate to “DTP” (step 120). If the current token candidate is not equal to “DTP”, program 404 compares the current token candidate to “EQ” (step 125). Eventually, program 404 increments text pointer 407 so that text pointer 407 points to the next character in the HIPAA 70 transaction, and reads the next character, so that the current token candidate includes the next character. (See step 135).

At the time depicted in FIG. 38, the token candidate is “DT”.

At the time depicted in FIG. 39, the token candidate is “DTP”.

If step 120 detects the “DTP” tag, program 404 parses the following DTP segment. (step 123).

Program 404 includes additional logic that recognizes tags and delimiters in addition to that represented by the boxes shown in FIG. 37. This additional logic is represented by the dashed line entering step 115.

FIGS. 40A and 40B constitute a flow chart describing step 123 of FIG. 37 in more detail. Program 404 sets the token candidate to null and reads in the next character (step 150). If the token candidate is “*”, program 404 sets the token candidate to null and reads the next character (step 160). If at step 155 the token candidate is not “*”, error processing is performed, as represented by the NO exit path out of step 155 because, according to the HIPAA 270 transaction protocol, the next character should be “*”.

There are numerous ways a person of skill in the art may implement the above-described parsing function of program 404. For example, the person could write a subprogram, using a higher level language for example, to carry out the parsing function of program 404. Alternatively, the person could invoke an off the shelf, commercially available, tool, such as the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) parser Trading Partner from Emanio Corporation, ProEDI, or Softshare. These products enable passing of EDI transactions from trading partners and translating into other data structures such as database tables, flat files, XML files, etc. that are usually actionable by an application.

In particular Trading Partner can parse the transaction and then another Emanio product, called Unite!, can map the parsed data into database commands that load the data into a database. To generate the HIPAA 271 transaction, the software takes information in the database and translates the information into a HIPAA 271 transaction that is sent to the provider.

FIG. 41 is a diagram for describing step 6 a, in the text above, in more detail. The box “Account Holder” represents a list of records, each record storing data about a respective account holder. This list of records could be a list of JAVA objects (instances of an AccountHolder class). The first element (“Id”) is an internal number unique to a particular AccountHolder Java object. The subsequent elements are data about a particular account holder.

The box “Practice” represents a list of records, each record storing data about a respective health care office. This list of records could be a list of JAVA objects (instances of a Practice class). The first element (“Id”) is an internal number unique to a particular Practice Java object. The subsequent elements are data about a particular health care office.

The box “Physician” represents a list of records, each record storing data about a respective health care professional. This list of records could be a list of JAVA objects (instances of a Physician class). The first element (“Id”) is an internal number unique to a particular Physician Java object. The subsequent elements are data about a professional.

The box “Patient” represents a list of records, each record storing data about a respective patient. This list of records could be a list of JAVA objects (instances of a Patient class). The first element (“Id”) is an internal number unique to a particular Patient Java object. The subsequent elements are data about a particular patient.

A match of a HIPAA 270 transaction, to the information in database 478, requires that the first name, last name, and date of birth of the subscriber in the HIPAA 270 transaction matches either the member id or the first name, last name, and date of birth in one of the account holder records.

A match of the HIPAA 270 transaction, to the information in database 478, also requires that the practice ID in the HIPAA 270 transaction matches the practice NPI or EIN of one of the practice records.

A match of the HIPAA 270 transaction, to the information in database 478, also requires that the physician ID of the HIPAA 270 transaction matches a physician NPI of one of the physician records.

A match of the HIPAA 270 transaction, to the information in database 478, also requires that the first name, last name, and date of birth of the patient in HIPAA 270 transaction matches either the member id or the first name, last name, and date of birth of one of the patient records.

FIG. 42 is a diagram for describing the creation of an appointment record using the data in a HIPAA 270 transaction. The lines in FIG. 42 program 404 populates the appointment record elements depending on the contents of the HIPAA 270 transaction.

Each appointment record is linked to one or more “appointment services” record.

FIG. 43 is a diagram for explaining step 6 b, in the text above, in more detail. The lines in FIG. 43 show how program 404 populates various record elements depending on the contents of the HIPAA 270 transaction.

Throughout this patent application, certain processing may be depicted in real-time, batch, serial, parallel, or other fashion, for ease of description. Actual hardware and software realizations, however, may be varied depending on desired optimizations apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art.

In this Patent Application, the word circuitry encompasses dedicated database hardware, and/or programmable hardware, such as a central processing unit (CPU) or reconfigurable logic array, in combination with programming data, such as sequentially fetched CPU instructions or programming data for a reconfigurable array. Thus, circuitry encompasses, for example, a general-purpose electronic processor programmed with software, acting to carry out a described function.

The features described above may be included with other features, such as discounts; preauthorization of charges, that are known to have to be collected at time of service, against the subscriber's credit card prior to the appointment; and collecting originally scheduled and additional services from the payment card before generation of the HIPAA 837 transaction, as discloses in copending U.S. Application Ser. No. 61/370,355 of MARK RODERICK COYNE filed Aug. 3, 2010 for PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS, the contents of which is herein incorporated by reference; and copending non-provisional Application of MARK RODERICK COYNE for PAYMENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS filed on the same date as the instant Application, the contents of which is herein incorporated by reference.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific examples. The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not critical, required, or essential feature or element of any of the claims.

Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus, and illustrative examples shown and described.

For example, although the examples show a person relying on a particular number of insurers, the number of insurers is variable. A person may rely on 0 insurers, 1 insurer, 2 insurers, etc.

For example, the person that pays for the health care services, or health care insurance, need not be the person that receives the health care services.

Although a payment mechanism has been described as being a credit card account, alternatives such as a debit card account, a gift card account, another type of account processed over a card-processing network, or other types of accounts may be employed.

For example, the order of messages and distribution of information among the messages may vary. Although message 1045, informing the medical office of the set of payers, has been depicted as sent before the visit for medical services, the subscriber could inform the medical office of a payer, or set of payers, during the visit to the medical office, or after.

Instead of a subscriber informing the medical office of the complete set of payers in one message, such as message 1045, the subscriber may inform the medical office of a primary insurer on one day, and another entity payment on another day.

For example, although computer processing has been shown as being performed in the medical offices, a medical office could be equipped merely with a thin client and the bulk of the computer processing could be performed, under direction of medical office, by another entity, geographically distant from the medical office.

Although in the exemplary systems described above the payment system and the insurance companies are non-affiliated, the payment system and the insurance companies could be affiliated.

Although, in the exemplary systems described above, message fields are located using textual tags within a message, fields could be located using an offset stored in a message, or using an offset stored external to the message.

Thus, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or the scope of Applicants' general inventive concept. The invention is defined in the following claims. In general, the words “first,” “second,” etc., employed in the claims do not necessarily denote an order. 

1. A data management system for managing patient services rendered within a network of one or more medical service entities that provide medical services and one or more insurance entities that provide insurance coverage for medical services, wherein the medical service entities and insurance entities communicate with one another via standardized transactions, wherein a first format is used in transactions from the medical service entities to the insurance entities in relation to charges for one or more patient-rendered medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities, and wherein a second format is used in transactions from the insurance entities to the medical service entities in relation to payments for the one or more patient-rendered medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities, the data management system comprising: a provider interface in communication with the one or more medical service entities, the provider interface configured to communicate with the one or more medical service entities via the standardized transactions, so that transactions from the one or more medical service entities to the provider interface are in the first format and transactions from the provider interface to the medical service entities are in the second format, wherein the format of communications between the one or more medical service entities and the provider interface is similar to the format of communications between the one or more medical service entities and the one or more insurance entities, since the same format is used for transactions with the one or more medical service entities, wherein the provider interface is further configured to receive information as to a patient appointment to be scheduled for a patient and one or more expected medical services to be provided by the one or more medical service entities in relation to the patient appointment; the provider interface being configured to provide information to the one or more insurance entities as to the patient and the one or more expected medical services to be provided for the patient by the one or more medical service entities, the provider interface further configured to receive an eligibility-benefits transaction from the one or more insurance entities for the patient containing information related to patient eligibility and coverage for the one or more expected medical services to be provided by the one or more medical service entities; wherein the provider interface is further configured to communicate with one or more payment services related to payment for the one or more expected medical services to be provided by the one or more medical service entities in relation to the patient appointment; a processing engine configured to identify any amount due that remains after any payments from the one or more insurance entities have been applied in connection with the patient appointment; and a payment interface in communication with the one or more payment services, the payment interface configured to communicate with the one or more payment services in order to request payment of at least a portion of any amount due that remains after payments from the one or more insurance entities have been applied, so that the one or more payment services are the last to pay, wherein information related to the payment processing of the amount due is populated in a payment transaction and communicated via the provider interface to the one or more medical service entities.
 2. The data management system of claim 1, wherein the request transaction is received from and the payment transaction is provided to one or more of the one or more medical service entities or a clearinghouse associated with the one or more medical service entities.
 3. The data management system of claim 1, further comprising: a registration engine configured to create a plurality of registration records, each registration record corresponding to an associated patient and created upon receipt of account information and payment information corresponding to the associated patient; and a storage component configured to store the plurality of registration records.
 4. The data management system of claim 3, wherein processing the received request transaction-by the processing engine comprises: determining if a match exists between data contained in the received request transaction and one of the plurality of registration records.
 5. The data management system of claim 4, further comprising: a payment engine for obtaining payment authorization and processing the amount due, wherein the payment engine comprises: if a match exists between data contained in the received request transaction and one of the plurality of registration records, sending via the payment interface a charge request for the amount due to a first payment service identified in the matched registration record; and receiving via the payment interface an indication from the first payment service as to whether the charge request is processed.
 6. The data management system of claim 5, wherein the processing engine populates the payment transaction with the indication from the first payment service as to whether the charge request is processed.
 7. The data management system of claim 5, wherein the one or more payment services comprise one or more of a credit card company, a credit union, a banking facility, a checking account, a savings account, or a debit account.
 8. The data management system of claim 1: wherein the eligibility-benefits transaction is automatically provided to the provider interface based upon the data management system registered with the first of the one or more medical entities; wherein the data management system further comprises an eligibility-benefits engine configured to (i) determine an eligibility status for the patient based on a valid payment confirmation for covering at least a portion of fees related to the one or more scheduled medical services and data in the eligibility-benefits transaction matching data in one of a plurality of registration records, (ii) create an appointment record for the patient, and (iii) create the eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction indicating the eligibility status for the patient.
 9. The data management system of claim 8, wherein the eligibility-benefits engine is further configured to perform a pre-authorization for a pre-authorized amount of the amount due if a match exists between the data in the eligibility-benefits transaction and one of the plurality of registration records.
 10. The data management system of claim 1, wherein the first format is a HIPAA 837 payment request transaction and the second format is a HIPAA 835 payment confirmation transaction.
 11. A method for managing HIPAA transactions for patient care, comprising: receiving at a provider interface a request for a patient appointment for a patient and one or more expected medical services to be provided by one or more medical service entities; receiving at a provider interface a HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction containing information related to the one or more expected medical services for the patient to be performed by the one or more medical service entities; determining whether the patient is registered by comparing data in the provider interface against information in the HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction; registering the patient at the provider interface if not already registered based on information received in a HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction; registering the patient at the one or more medical service entities if not already registered based on information received in a HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation; determining by an eligibility-benefits engine an eligibility status for the patient based on a valid payment confirmation for covering at least a portion of fees related to the one or more expected medical services and data in the HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction matching data in one of a plurality of registration records; creating by the eligibility-benefits engine an appointment record; creating by the eligibility-benefits engine a HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction indicating the eligibility status for the patient; transmitting from the provider interface the HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction; establishing at the provider interface that any HIPAA 837 payment request transactions are received related to any charges for the one or more expected medical services performed by one or more medical service entities; processing at a processing engine any of the HIPAA 837 payment request transactions that are received to identify the patient and an amount due that remains after any payments from one or more insurance entities have been applied, in connection with any charges for the one or more expected medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities; transmitting from the provider interface to one or more payment services a request to pay the amount due that remains after payments from the one or more insurance entities have been applied, in connection with any charges for the one or more expected medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities; and wherein the provider interface, the eligibility-benefits engine, and the processing engine, comprise a data management system that operates within a network of the one or more medical service entities that provide medical services and one or more insurance entities that provide insurance.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein one or more of the HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction or the HIPAA 837 payment request transaction are received from and one or more of the HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction or the HIPAA 835 payment confirmation transaction are provided to the one or more medical service entities or a clearinghouse associated with the first of the one or more medical entities.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising: creating by a registration engine the plurality of registration records, each registration record corresponding to an associated patient and created upon receipt of account information and payment information corresponding to the associated patient; and storing at a storage component the plurality of registration records.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein processing payment authorization and the amount due by the payment engine comprises: if a match exists between data contained in the HIPAA 837 payment request transaction and one of the plurality of registration records, sending via a payment interface a charge request for the amount due to a first payment service identified in the matched registration record, the amount due being a cost for the one or more medical services after insurance coverage is applied; and receiving via the payment interface an indication from the first payment service as to whether the charge request is processed.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising: performing by the eligibility-benefits engine a pre-authorization or a payment for a pre-authorized payment amount of the amount due if a match exists between the data in the HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits transaction and one of the plurality of registration records, the payment amount being a cost estimate for the one or more scheduled medical services after insurance coverage is applied; wherein the payment amount is deducted from the amount due.
 16. The data management system of claim 11, wherein the eligibility-benefits transaction is a HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction and the eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction is a HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction.
 17. A data management system for managing services rendered within a network of one or more medical service entities that provide medical services and one or more insurance entities that provide insurance coverage for medical services, wherein the medical service entities and insurance entities communicate with one another via standardized transactions, wherein a first format is used in transactions from the medical service entities to the insurance entities in relation to charges for one or more patient-rendered medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities, and wherein a second format is used in transactions from the insurance entities to the medical service entities in relation to payments for the one or more patient-rendered medical services performed by the one or more medical service entities, the data management system comprising: a provider interface in communication with the one or more medical service entities, the provider interface configured to communicate with the one or more medical service entities via the standardized transactions, so that transactions from the one or more medical service entities to the provider interface are in the first format and transactions from the provider interface to the medical service entities are in the second format, wherein the format of communications between the one or more medical service entities and the provider interface is similar to the format of communications between the one or more medical service entities and the one or more insurance entities, since the same format is used for transactions with the one or more medical service entities; the provider interface further comprising a scheduling engine configured to (i) receive information as to a patient appointment for a patient and one or more expected medical services to be provided, (ii) provide information to the one or more insurance entities as to the one or more expected medical services to be provided for the patient, and (iii) receive an insurance eligibility-benefits transaction from the one or more insurance entities containing information related to patient eligibility and coverage for the one or more expected medical services; the provider interface further comprising an eligibility engine configured to (i) determine one or more payment services established for the patient for covering at least a portion of fees related to the one or more expected medical services, and (ii) create an appointment record for the patient; a processing engine configured to identify an amount due that remains after any payments from the one or more insurance entities have been applied; and a payment interface in communication with the one or more payment services, the payment interface configured to communicate with the one or more payment services in order to request payment of the amount due that remains after payments from the one or more insurance entities have been applied, wherein information related to the payment processing of the amount due is populated in a payment transaction and communicated via the provider interface to the one or more medical service entities.
 18. The data management system of claim 17, further comprising: a payment engine for obtaining payment authorization and processing the amount due, wherein the payment engine comprises: if a match exists between data contained in the received request transaction and one of the plurality of registration records, sending via the payment interface a charge request for the amount due to a first payment service identified in the matched registration record; and receiving via the payment interface an indication from the first payment service as to whether the charge request is processed.
 19. The data management system of claim 18, wherein the one or more payment services comprise one or more of a credit card company, a credit union, a banking facility, a checking account, a savings account, or a debit account.
 20. The data management system of claim 17, wherein the eligibility-benefits engine is further configured to perform a pre-authorization for a pre-authorized amount of the amount due if a match exists between the data in the eligibility-benefits transaction and one of the plurality of registration records.
 21. The data management system of claim 17, wherein the first format is a HIPAA 837 payment request transaction and the second format is a HIPAA 835 payment confirmation transaction, wherein the eligibility-benefits transaction is a HIPAA 270 eligibility-benefits transaction and wherein the eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction is a HIPAA 271 eligibility-benefits confirmation transaction.
 22. The data management system of claim 17, wherein the eligibility engine is further configured to require one or more payment services to be established for the patient for covering at least a portion of fees related to the one or more expected medical services, where no payment services have been previously established for the patient.
 23. The data management system of claims 17, wherein the eligibility engine is further configured to determine whether a patient is previously registered.
 24. The data management system of claim 23, wherein the eligibility engine is further configured to receive registration information in relation to a patient not previously registered.
 25. The data management system of claim 17, wherein the eligibility engine is further configured to send registration information in relation to a patient not previously registered at medical entities. 